Utube to sue YouTube amid site confusion

A company selling used tube machinery is to sue YouTube after its website - called utube.com - crashed repeatedly under the weight of millions of mistaken clicks.

The US firm Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corporation, which supplies second-hand tube and pipe machinery, employs 17 people at its base in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Its website has become one of most clicked manufacturing sites in the world and recorded 68m hits in August as computer users mistook it for the video sharing website.

The site became so overwhelmed by unwanted visitors that it was shut down for several days last month following the news that Google had purchased YouTube for more than £1bn.

Universal Tube says it has lost business because genuine customers have had trouble accessing its site, and has filed a lawsuit asking YouTube to change its web address or pay the cost of creating a new domain name.

"We've had to move our site five times in an effort to stay head of the YouTube visitors," Ralph Girkins, the Universal Tube president, said. "We there first by 10 years."

Universal Tube issued an apology to would-be buyers of reconditioned tube and pipe mills, saying: "Because of the similarities between the two domains, millions of people have been confused.

"This massive traffic flow to our site, which is actually getting worse, has shut down our website again and again."

The company said its site had repeatedly been moved to providers with large servers to handle "not only our customers and reps but also the continuing deluge of confused video searchers".

It thanked customers for their "continued patience and patronage as we work to resolve this unfortunate situation".